What’s wrong with a modest car for Religious Affairs head?

The head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has declared that he will return the 1 million Turkish Lira car that was allocated for his use. 

“I have not used that vehicle for even one day. We will return it to set an example,” he said. 

I was not able to understand why he waited until today and has not returned it yet. I also could not understand for whom this will set an example. 

I guess it would be an example for those riding expensive state cars, not for the citizen who commutes to work by bus, metro or company shuttle. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also come out against this. It looks like one day he will turn against himself, when he cannot find anything else to oppose.

He said the car was worthy of the position, and that if he had known he would have recommended that the Diyanet should keep it. Such state positions are honored by these things, Erdoğan said. 

If the head of Diyanet or any other public employee rides a modest car, would they be offended? You talk about improving the local automotive industry, but at the same time you ride expensive imported cars. 

Wouldn’t it be a moral and material support to the auto industry if top officials rode local cars, instead of spending their budget on luxury items? 

Wouldn’t it set an example to other public employees to show how the “top” ones act? 

You say the resources of this country are limited, but at the same time you don’t give up your luxury? 

Is that a shame or what? 

We have spent 15 billion liras to achieve nothing

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said we spent $5.6 billion on the Syrians who escaped the civil war and have taken refuge in our country. This means 15 billion Turkish Liras, however you slice it. 

But despite this expense, our streets are full of Syrians who have become beggars out of desperation. 

They assumed that the war in Syria would end in a short period of time and that Bashar al-Assad would be toppled, so they opened our borders wide open. Their calculations proved to be wrong. 

The number of Syrian refugees is not decreasing. Actually they might be rising as more flee from ISIL or al-Nusra. 

The majority of these people are not in refugee camps anymore. They have been scattered across all provinces in Turkey.

The children of these people have no means of education. They will grow up soon and they will become the human resources of criminal organizations in Turkey.

Of course it was not possible to return people at our borders who were running away from a war. Of course, humanitarian responsibility obliged us to accept these refugees. We did that. 

But how clever was it to scatter these refugees all around the country with no control? 

Now, every two days there are clashes between Syrian refugees and local people. Houses are torched, shops are stoned.

The only body responsible for this is the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government who could not manage this crisis. 

A solution must be found for this before it causes bigger security issues. But the government does nothing other than boast without justification.